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Show Notes
1. Getting Started with Freelance Job Boards
Freelance job boards are often the first step for new freelancers. These platforms connect clients with service providers, making them a great starting point for building your portfolio and reputation. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Popular Platforms:
- Freelancer.com*
- GURU*
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Building a Standout Profile:
- Freelancer tools often give you the opportunity to build out a profile
- These tools let you advertise yourself and often times allow you to advertise your services as well
- When we used GURU we were able to:
- Use our branding (logos, company name, and company description)
- List our services and pricing - the services had the opportunity to fill in a lot of details (these details are great for anyone that stumbles upon your profile, even if it’s not from a lead that’s on the site
- Your profile should almost be like a flyer for anyone that stumbles upon it, and structured for good SEO in case a search engine finds and lists your profile in results
- A good rule of thumb is to have your entire presence be professional and complete on these platforms
- Potential customers that may be inquisitive may click on your profile to learn more about you, having an incomplete profile may leave them with a bad impression
- Understanding Customers and Competitors: How to stand out and navigate in a crowded market.
- Being surrounded by other freelancers & prospective customers can help you:
- Understand the market value of certain services
- Note: A lot of freelancer services can be a race to the bottom of the pricing totem, so it’s important that you don’t base all your pricing knowledge on these freelancer markets - get a variety of sources if you can
- Get an insight on what is in demand (is everyone asking for help with React? Maybe learning React is a good skill to pick up)
- You’ll get practice writing proposals and learn what works (by winning work orders)
- Freelancer markets often offer a lot of categories of different jobs, so you may start noticing some adjacent skills (ie web development, web design, content writing) and that could lead you to learning some of these adjacent skills to not only increase the amount of work orders to can apply to, but also increase your skillset and overall offering to clients
- Quick Tips:
- Bidding on smaller projects initially can lead to long-term success (small jobs lead to big jobs, word of mouth, getting your name out there)
- Freelancer markets don’t have to be your life, if you’re not finding success - then try somewhere else (other freelancer markets, or other places completely - you can always come back
- Unless you’re under some sort of exclusivity agreement, you may want to try different freelancer marketplaces to see which one is a good fit for you
* Platforms we have first-hand experience using
2. Building an Online Presence
Freelancing isn’t just about finding jobs—it’s about making yourself discoverable. A strong online presence helps potential clients find and trust you.
- Portfolio Websites: The importance of maintaining a professional, easy-to-navigate personal website that highlights your best work.
- If someone wants to research you before they work with you, they need to be able to find you online
- Having a portfolio site is a great professional way to show off your skills and if you add a blog component, you can update it regularly with what you’re working on - tailoring things for SEO to even gain some organic cold traffic from search engines
- If a portfolio site is too much for you to make and maintain in the moment, then utilizing a social media platform is a good start (I recommend LinkedIn as it is for professionals, but you may find your customers favour a different social media network)
- Social Media Updates:
- Updating your profile on social media with what you’re working on and if you’re available for more work is a great way to publicly get attention and showcase your work for researching clients
- If you build a network of colleagues on a platform, you’ll also have a community of people to reach out to (vice versa) to share leads and ask for help
- Since social media is public, people will post their problems on there - problems that you may be able to solve (ie someone may complain that their slider isn’t working right on their site)
- Consistency Matters: Regularly update your profiles and showcase your latest projects, testimonials, and achievements.
- If someone stumbles upon your profile and realizes that you haven’t updated it since 2018… it makes it look like you’re no longer around
- If you are still interested in gaining leads from your social media, then you should update it as consistently as possible
- The amount you post can vary depending on your goals:
- If you’re trying to be an influencer in the space then content creation is a major part of your job, so posting frequently is likely important
- If you’re just using social media to gain leads to get yourself a job, then your updates likely won’t need to be as frequent
3. Leveraging Word of Mouth
Sometimes, the best opportunities come from people you already know. Word of mouth can be one of the most powerful tools in your freelancing toolkit.
- Delivering Great Results:
- If you deliver great results for a client, then they’re likely to recommend you to their friends and family
- Once you work for a few clients, it’s common to have more leads come flying in from the random relationships and good impressions that you’ve made with people
- Building Relationships: Why maintaining good relationships with past clients can turn them into repeat customers or advocates for your business.
- As you establish yourself, it’s likely that you’ll eventually stop seeking new leads as the relationships and steady business from those will feed your business a steady flow of cash
4. Finding Leads in Unconventional Places
Sometimes, the best opportunities come from thinking outside the box. We’ll explore creative ways to find leads that others might overlook.
- Local Partnerships: How teaming up with local businesses, like computer repair shops, can generate passive leads.
- One of our more lucrative relationships has been with a local computer shop
- They’re “boots on the ground” and do not offer web services themselves
- This is where we step in, where we build a business relationship to help them satisfy the needs of their clients and have a mutually beneficial relationship between our two businesses
- They hand us leads, the clients don’t leave their computer shop empty-handed, and there’s often a business angle (ie finder’s fee)
- Community Involvement: Engaging in local events, meetups, or forums where potential clients may be seeking help.
- We’ve helped out a local charity and in return they’ve put our name on banners at their public events for a couple years
- This is a good way to us to sponsor a good cause and have that good come back to us in the form of publicity and prospective leads
- Industry-Specific Niches: Targeting specific industries or small businesses that are often underserved by larger agencies.
- Some industries may be overlooked by larger agencies and service providers, this is where you can come in and help
- For example, we used to help clients with web-based kiosk apps - building the web apps and helping source hardware at reasonable prices
- Online Forums and Groups: Participating in online communities like Reddit, Facebook groups, or Discord servers to find potential clients.
- If your ear is always to the ground then there’s always potential to catch a lead
- For example, if you’re in web dev communities on Discord, then you may find someone that’s struggling with their workload - maybe you could help for a bit?
- “Uber Lead Seeking”
- Uber is a way for people to gain additional income on the side, or to help fill in the income gap if they’re between jobs… and for some Uber is a full time profession - Jobs like this are often referred to as “gigs”
- I personally see lead seeking as a gig, if you’re very serious about it, then you can often drum up some sort of work. Lots of work that you can find won’t be put in obvious places like freelancer boards, or from a cold email from a prospective client, you can often drum up business by finding someone in trouble and offering a professional helping hand.
Resources and Links
Timestamps
Timestamps are machine generated - there may be some errors.
- 00:00 Welcome Back to the HTML All Things Podcast
- 00:52 Introduction to Freelancing for Web Development
- 01:47 Exploring Freelance Job Boards
- 03:26 Building a Standout Profile
- 12:09 Understanding Market Value and Competition
- 21:50 Navigating Freelancer Markets
- 28:32 Building an Online Presence
- 33:45 Leveraging Social Media for Leads
- 33:58 Consistency in Social Media Updates
- 34:48 Tailoring Your Social Media Strategy
- 36:08 The Importance of Online Presence
- 39:02 Utilizing LinkedIn for Freelancing
- 42:01 The Power of Word of Mouth
- 44:47 Building and Maintaining Client Relationships
- 51:50 Finding Leads in Unconventional Places
- 56:39 Treat Lead Seeking as a Gig
- 01:03:42 Final Thoughts on Freelancing
